Lehman's False Accounting Was Known By SEC and NY Fed Regulators -- Yet They Did Nothing
(L to R) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies while SEC Chairman Christopher Cox Under Secretary of Treasury for Finance, Robert Steele and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner listen during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill April 3, 2008 in Washington DC. Bernanke defended the Feds moves to prevent the failure of Bear Stearns investment bank, saying that its failure could have dealt the U.S. and world economy serious damage.
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At most times there were at least a dozen regulators from the SEC and New York Federal Reserve stationed within Lehman Brothers, with unfettered access to Lehman's financials including the Repo 105 transactons. And they were tipped by a whistleblower. Yet they said nothing.
Hello, Mr. Geithner. Yes, I'm here to deliver another nail for your coffin.
Lehman Brothers executives weren’t the only ones in the building when they were moving billions of dollars in liabilities off their books at the end of each quarter with magic accounting. So were the Feds, The New York Times’s Andrew Ross Sorkin writes in his latest DealBook column.
Regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Fed sent emergency teams to monitor most of the big banks after the collapse of Bear Stearns. They had constant access to Lehman’s books, and not just the dolled up quarterly reporting. So where was the government while all this “materially misleading” accounting was going on?
It now appears that the federal government itself either didn’t appreciate the significance of what it saw (we’ve seen that movie before with regulators waving off tips about Bernard L. Madoff). Or perhaps they did appreciate the significance and blessed the now-suspect accounting anyway, Mr. Sorkin writes.
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Read the column from Andrew Sorkin >>
Mar 16, 2010 at 3:43 PM
Reader Comments (66)
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF DOOM!! I DARE YOU TO SIN!!
1. The higher unemployment goes, the LOWER house prices will be.
2. There are 10 MILLION homes in the Foreclosure pipeline, the more there are, the LOWER house prices will be.
3. There are more than 50 MILLION underwater mortgages, this will double shortly.
4. The more people who retire, the LOWER house prices will be.
5. Interest rates are low, for now, the higher they go, the LOWER house prices will be.
6. The less the gov subsidizes, (8K tax credit ending), the LOWER house prices will be.
7. Taxes UP, housing LOWER
8. HOA fees up, housing LOWER
9. Pay and comp at private business down, housing LOWER
10. More housing being built, housing LOWER
Housing never should have appreciated faster than pay inflation.
They are NEVER, EVER going to be worth more than they are TODAY.
There is NO SCENARIO that can change this.
GET it through your thick skulls already.
NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT THE HOUSING MESS other than the prices getting lower.
THAT is the ONLY solution, always has been, and always will.
HOUSING WILL be selling for 2-3X yrly earnings (for ONE person) within the next 36 months or so.
Anything of value only has a worth of what the NEXT person is willing to pay.
Your time is up
You all will burn in hell in next 18 months
Wall Street Bankers & corporate crooks can not live in peace by enslaving working class
RIOTS in USA Nov 2010-2011 Prediction
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18 trillion US dollars on war
and we we cut school budgets, police budgets medicaid, and social security? What happened to our priorities here in America?
Why is our military budget bigger than the rest of the earths combined?
Why is ok to spend trillions blowing up other human beings.. but health care is too expensive?
(((((((((((http://www.theburningplatform.com/)))))))))))))))))))
AMEN
Every time I read you
I am stricken by the notion
of just how sad your mom must be
for skipping your abortion
Her life could be much better
as ALL would be by far
if you were put back in your place
and kept within a jar
The obstetrician knew as much
when it came to pass
that at the time of childbirth
he pulled you from her ass
For hours they debated
til everyone was heard
about whether to let you live
or flush you like a turd
At last it was decided and
they asked your mom to sit
and said, "Congratulations lady it's
a six pound piece of shit!"
You are an impressive poet as well... I stand in awe.
PS: I love the way he's making-believe he hasn't read it yet.
In your absence Zarapustra became very belligerant and bothersome, so I had to take him out along with the rest of the TRASH. I hope you don't mind but given that he had no useful parts I opted for putting him into the GARBAGE bin instead of the RECYCLE one. I also cracked open some windows to ventilate and let the stench out. The mail's on the kitchen counter..
..WELCOME HOME!
:-)
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 1, 2010 5:14 PM | ShareThis
Former Clinton Secretary of Labor Robert Reich had some very strong words today for the Federal Reserve. In his commentary which I find at Wall Street Pit, Reich questions the constitutionality of the Fed’s actions in 2008. None of this comes as a surprise, but it should cause America to wake up to the fact that the Wall Street-Washington incestuous relationship has run roughshod over America before and now throughout our economic crisis.
Who in Washington is willing to blow the whistle on this incest? Reich writes, The Fed in Hot Water:
http://www.senseoncents.com/2010/04/robert-reich-the-fed-in-hot-water/
Bailing Out Debtors Has Grave Dangers
Trading Places: Global Power Positions Are Based On Trade
March 9, 2010...5:35 pm
Obama Is Being Destroyed By Rahm Emanuel And AIPAC
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It is all very darkly amusing watching the struggle for power between Jewish members of the Obama administration and the Jewish owners and reporters in the media. The circus this produces is entirely made in Tel Aviv. Jewish financial supporters (and yes,they exist and there are rather quite a few of these AIPAC people!) of Obama needed a strong controlling hand on the Obama till so they gave generously when an Israeli officer (Mossad agent) was put forth as Obama’s top handler.
ΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩΩ
Meet you all by the rocks.
i have decided to leave up your comments so that others will understand why you were banned...
My client Ken is willing to plead 'no contest' to two lesser counts of Jew-baiting, in exchange for a reduced sentence of time-served and 3 months supervised probation. With random drug testing at your discretion included, of course.
Should I start the paperwork?
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$60B+ LOOT SCAM by Insiders in bed with Goldman Sachs at NETFLIX
All whistles Blown in USA but I get harassed too long. Robert Khuzami at "SEC" protecting the scam at Netflix and loot continues.....
Bye now
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Quantitative easing has benefited only Wall Street bankers and the 1% wealthiest Americans. The $1.4 trillion of toxic mortgage backed securities on The Fed’s balance sheet are worth less than $700 billion. How will they unload this toxic waste? The Treasuries they have bought drop in value as interest rates rise. Quantitative easing’s Catch 22 is that it can never be unwound without destroying the Fed and the US economy.
Bennie and his Inkjets did a bang up job in 2011. He was able to expand his balance sheet from $2.47 trillion to $2.95 trillion in twelve short months. According to Ben and his Federal Reserve friends, increasing your balance sheet by $480 billion isn’t really printing money out of thin air and handing it to their Wall Street owners for free, so they can prop up the stock market and enrich their executives. Ben is now leveraged 57 to 1. He should move to Europe, where this level of leverage is commonplace. In comparison, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns were leveraged 40 to 1 when they went belly up.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/